#joe freeman

The general plot line is like that of a lot of King stories - kids with special abilities are kidnapped by the government and forced to endure captivity, medical experiments, and torture, all with the shadowy bad guys claiming it is for the Greater Good.

There's two parallel storylines: Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman) and the other kids at the Institute who are being tortured and experimented on by Ms. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker) and the other adults of the agency, which include the trope filled cast of: sadistic muscle/guard, sympathetic cleaning lady, morally gray doctor who is only gray because he is compared to much more overtly evil characters, amongst others. The other kids buy into the lie that Sigsby tells them (because the more likely truth is too awful to comprehend), except for Luke (who has a genius level IQ and general distrust of all adults anyway), and Nicky, the oldest of the group (who has been there for ages and comes from a Troubled Background and also has no trust in adults).

Second storyline: Tim Jamieson (Ben Barnes) is a recent drifter, having left Boston PD after an On the Job Tragedy and gone north into Maine (this is, after all, Stephen King) and winds up in the same town as the Institute and takes on a police job of Night Knocker (basically a night guard for the town). Everyone has different theories on the true function of The Institute - cover story is that they're an infectious disease lab, but everyone has some wild theory from aliens to kinda close to what it actually is. Tim starts digging into the place after one too many weird things happen, and things get weirder from there for him.

vague-ish spoilers:

Things I love about it - Tim is just a genuinely nice and kind person. He prefers to de-escalate things and does his job without a firearm, but he does know how to use one. He wants to believe in the Good in people, but experience darkens that a bit. Also, once meeting Luke, even when he doesn't immediately believe the details of how Luke came to be where they meet (and how) he is the first adult that shows Luke genuine care. When Luke gives him evidence of who he is, Tim doesn't just take the information and move on, he hugs Luke and tells him he's sorry for what's happened, and promises to help him.

And for the episodes they share screen time, I love their relationship. The actor playing Luke is 19, but the character is supposed to be much younger than that (I think they actually say he's 12-13 in the series), but Luke has been The Leader of the group for the entire series, the one who comes up with a plan, the one who has the answers, the one who takes the hit for the others, etc., and watching him start to lean more and more on Tim once he realizes that yes, Tim believes him, and yes, Tim is going to help him, is just ::chef's kiss:: And the other nice part about it, is that while Tim treats him as a traumatized child (which he is) he respects his agency enough that he lets Luke make his own decisions about his future.

"The Fifth Step" Press Night